To celebrate and support World Maternal Mental Health Day and week, Homeopath Rebecca Dove talks to us about her journey in motherhood.

"I am a homeopath working with many local mums, but I'd really like to share my own experience of post-natal mental health and how I got through it...

Being a new mum was incredibly stressful for me.  I now have a gorgeous three-year-old, but getting through all of it from navigating the medicalisation of pregnancy and birth and trying to have my requests heard, to learning to breastfeed, to coping on my own with a new baby - to be honest what I experienced was way more than just stress.  I was used to stress.  I'd been in business, run a practice, had degrees and qualifications, even cared for elderly parents and juggled life and everything that comes with it. 

It sounds cliched but absolutely nothing though prepared me for the journey I went through in pregnancy and as a new mother.  I did have some amazing help with the birth from a local doula, but the afterwards was different to everything I'd ever imagined motherhood to be like.  Someone turned my anxiety dial up to 500, I was on constant hyper-alert, stressed, exhausted, hugely sleep deprived and pretty physically wrecked.  Here was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me, and I was on this unbelievable emotional roller coaster. 

When the intrusive thoughts started, I really did think I was going mad.  I was thinking about things that could happen to my baby all the time.  I'd go on a walk and in my head he was in the pond beside us, everything and anything became a potential danger, including myself, and I got to see it all in full-blown technicolour, inside my head.  My anxiety levels went ballistic and if I’m honest I didn't feel I was safe as a mother.  It was terrifying and I felt absolutely unable to control it and I felt incredibly alone in what I was feeling. 

I count myself incredibly lucky, I was about six weeks post partuum and a good friend came to visit and I confided how I'd been feeling, and she immediately reassured me how normal it was and actually a sign of being strongly bonded to my child.  She gave me the confidence to get on the phone to my homeopath and started getting help to deal with what was going on in my head, and very quickly the thoughts subsided and the anxiety, exhaustion and fears melted away.  I'll never forget how truly wonderful it was to relax and enjoy my baby and not be overwhelmed anymore.

Trying to navigate the way we feel and even think during pregnancy and early motherhood is far from easy at times.  Suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of responsibility like we've never experienced, flooded by a complex cocktail of hormones, and quite possibly some very difficult new and overwhelming thoughts & feelings.  Relationship dynamics can change and as often as not as a new mum we can find ourselves isolated, even if we do have support close by.  The enormity of the situation is massive and the world goes on as if nothing happened yet does no one realise how everything has now changed.

Support from a homeopath can help in two ways.  We're non-judgemental and qualified practitioners that have the time to listen and really hear you and what you want from your pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience.  The remedies we can supply give real support in times of emotional and mental stress and even for deeper trauma, whilst also helping to ease some of the physical side that can be very draining at times like this.  And let’s face it, how we feel about the changes in our bodies greatly affects our mental well-being too, so it’s all about helping you be as supported as possible in mind and body during this enormous life-changing experience.  There is zero shame in asking for help, this is a massive, massive thing you're doing and you deserve all the help and understanding you can get whilst you’re in it.

  If you'd like to chat to me more about how I can help at any stage in your maternal journey (all parents of any age children are also incredibly welcome too) book a curiosity call with me via my page https://centreforintegralhealth.com/about-us/our-practitioners/rebecca-dove-/ "